If it's gothic, Siddons (Outer Banks, King's Oak, etc.) can do it, or so it would appear in this latest novel destined for commercial success. In it, she takes her gifts for melodrama and tangling family trees up north, to a summer colony for Boston Brahmins on the coast of Maine, called simply ``Retreat.'' But Siddons's heroine is a southerner, and on her she demonstrates one of her best tricks—her deep intimacy with her leading ladies, which the author shares with her readers from the get-go. Anyway, it isn't easy for sweet young Maude Gascoigne, from a moldering plantation near Charleston, to fit in when her new husband, sterling-silver Peter Chambliss (of a Boston banking family, Princeton, and Retreat), takes her to the summer place. For the first few decades Maude battles it out with her insufferable, hypercritical mother-in-law, the drunken and lecherous husband of her best friend, Amy Potter, and even Peter himself—a depressive, hermetic man who just sails away whenever things get rough. Gradually, though, little Maudie gets some starch and learns to endure almost anything, including: the death of her mother-in-law (``my beloved enemy''); Peter's weird coldness to his own two children, which ultimately sends the younger, Happy, to a sanitarium; the death of a grandson; the return of a bad seed, Elizabeth, Amy Potter's girl, who does her best to break up Maude's son's marriage; and whispers that float on the salt spray every summer about how much Elizabeth looks like Peter. Well, it turns out that Elizabeth's connection to Peter is very much an issue—but we're not telling why. Long-suffering Maude may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this time Siddons gets the melodrama balance just right and shows she's as much at home in Maine as she was in Georgia. Fans will be doing cartwheels, and others will queue up.
Pub Date: July 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-06-017933-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1992
The first in a multicultural #OwnVoices romance series, with an enemies-to-lovers central plot and distinctive supporting...
A workaholic, socially inept Indian-American brain surgeon is caught off guard by her attraction to a Rwandan/Anglo-Indian chef in this rewrite of Pride and Prejudice.
Trisha Raje is a princess whose family prides itself on its aristocratic Indian roots as well as its integration into American life. The Rajes are preparing for their scion’s gubernatorial campaign in the Bay Area when Trisha rejoins them after a period of estrangement (caused by her former college roommate). She and chef Darcy "DJ" Caine meet at a political event and sparks fly, but for all the wrong reasons. While the two try to smooth things over, subsequent encounters exacerbate their hostility and class divide. Yet, as any Austen fan knows, the fallout of their pride and biases will eventually be resolved. Dev (A Distant Heart, 2017, etc.) credibly reworks a beloved novel to include diverse representation, and her use of dual points of view reveals the internal lives of both protagonists. DJ’s love for Indian cooking is also an interesting flip of a more traditional script. But Dev creates equivalents to Regency England partly through a discomfiting choice to valorize Trisha’s royal Indian genes—not only does she descend from ancestors who fought the medieval Islamic Mughal rulers and the British Empire and joined the Indian freedom struggle, her relatives are good royals who practice noblesse oblige (including on visits to Africa) and nurture a household (including a member who is differently abled) and have an upper-class sense of art and music. This complimentary take on the one percent is common in the genre, but what is problematic here is that romanticizing a royal identity normalizes the caste hierarchy still practiced (albeit illegally) in South Asian society, including in the contemporary diaspora. So while this is undoubtedly a charming attempt to weave in Indian history and Maharashtrian culture (and address #MeToo), the novel is limited to a lovely but upper-class Hindu family’s tribulations and triumphs, reiterating a tendency among Indian cultural producers to limit happily-ever-afters to this group.
The first in a multicultural #OwnVoices romance series, with an enemies-to-lovers central plot and distinctive supporting characters whose histories and dramas play out alongside the love story.Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283905-3
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Emily is stunned when she's placed in tiny Sunshine, Idaho, to work off her veterinary internship obligations instead of the...
Veterinary intern Emily Stevens has a plan, which does not include creating roots in small-town Idaho or falling for her very sexy supervisor, Wyatt.
Emily is stunned when she's placed in tiny Sunshine, Idaho, to work off her veterinary internship obligations instead of the Beverly Hills clinic she wanted. But she shows up ready to give it her all—and is thrown for a loop when she realizes that her supervisor, Wyatt, is the sexy stranger she had her first-ever one-night stand with at a recent conference. Now they have to work together, and she's determined to put that experience behind them, despite their sizzling chemistry. However, after a few days with Wyatt, it’s clear she’s in trouble. Aside from being superhot, he’s an amazing, intuitive vet, and the way he treats patients, owners and his clinic partners makes it evident he’s one special man. Falling quickly into a secret affair, the two seem to be in perfect harmony at the clinic and in bed, but Emily isn’t convinced that Wyatt’s feelings for her extend beyond the sexual and professional. As far as Wyatt is concerned, Emily always seems to have one foot ready to travel back to California, even as she begins to make human and animal connections in Sunshine. Burned by past relationships with people who weren’t willing to stay with him in the remote town he loves, Wyatt refuses to ask Emily to do just that. Shalvis’ popular Animal Magnetism series continues with sexy vet Wyatt’s story, setting his world-wise, small-town outlook against Emily’s rigidly set expectations for her life. The author creates exquisite sexual tension and romantic angst, along with a dash of suspense, so even while we don’t completely buy Emily’s and Wyatt’s inabilities to read each other's unspoken true feelings, we're still engaged in their story and invested in their happily-ever-after. Even when she’s not quite perfect, Shalvis tells a sexy, satisfying small-town love story.Pub Date: July 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-425-27017-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
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